While highlighting Gambale and Holdsworth's outstanding playing abilities, Taylor noted that they "quickly run out of ideas and continuously revert back to familiar territory".
[4] The album consists primarily of covers of existing jazz fusion compositions, save for one track performed by Lane—"Lane's Blitz"—which he later dismissed as an impromptu warm-up rather than a planned solo, and thus his dislike for it.
The cover art on the original release features a tongue-in-cheek disclaimer to listeners: "Warning: Contains guitar performances of unparalleled speed, taste and virtuosity.
", while the back cover has an invitation from Varney asking fans to send in demo tapes of potential guitarists for his label, in return for a named mention within the credits on a future album, as well as five Legato releases mailed to them for free.
Robert Taylor at AllMusic rated Centrifugal Funk three stars out of five, calling it "an exhausting listen" and the songs "fairly weak".